Dimapur, April 11 (EMN): Global Naga Forum (GNF) on Monday termed the Central government’s decision of imposing Hindi in the eight northeastern states as a vision towards a “monolithic Hindu-India and a RSS-driven national culture.”
GNF said the Union Home Minister’s effort is the ‘latest version of the 1950s project of Hinduising the Naga homeland, which is now being expanded to cover the whole of the Northeast’.
The forum said it welcomed the study of any languages -- Indian as well as world languages.
“We very much encourage teaching the rich oral traditions and literature of the Northeast, India, Myanmar, and the world.
“But the current BJP government’s arbitrary decision to impose something like the teaching of Hindi on the eight states of the Northeast does not advance human excellence or respectful co-existence among the diverse linguistic and cultural groups India is known for,” read the statement.
People who study Indo-Naga relations will easily identify three major weapons in the arsenal of India’s campaign against the Naga people’s movement for self-determination. First, military force to crush a democratic, political struggle. After more than six decades working under the protection of the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the Indian armed forces have mostly completed the job.
“The second item in the anti-Naga arsenal has been the Indian Intelligence Bureau.
“What remains then is the third weapon: bringing Naga society in alignment with Hindu-India. This project was delayed under Indian Congress party rule, but has now been revived with passion by the BJP,” it said.
GNF therefore strongly opposed the imposition of Hindi in Nagaland stating that the BJP’s current move would be the ‘final phase, the beginning of the end, of Naga existence as a people.’
Nagaland Law Students’ Federation (NLSF) in a statement issued on Monday also expressed shock at the statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that eight states of the northeast had agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to class 10.
The NLSF reminded that the Indian Constitution had not given the status of national language to any language. It said that imposition of any language over the people with diverse languages would only “kill the spirit of democracy that unify us as a nation despite many differences.”
NLSF further requested the govt. of Nagaland to clarify on the matter as such decisions must be taken considering the grassroots of the society, it read.
It said that the federation is not against any official language but stated that Indian citizens ‘enjoy equal fundamental rights and no single language is superior to other languages’.